5 Ways To Grow Your Side Podcast Into A Six-Figure Business

At first glance, podcasting may not seem like the most enticing (or lucrative) side hustle idea.

After all, it clearly requires a fair amount of work and the right recording equipment just to get your podcast up and running. That combination of time and financial investment can be a lot to handle while you still have a regular nine-to-five job keeping you busy.

But when done right, podcasting can become a very profitable side business that gives you an excuse to sit down and engage one of your passions. In fact, I recently had the chance to meet with Michael Sacca, the co-host of both Rocketship.fm and This New Economy, a pair of business podcasts that earn he and his co-host over $10,000 a month in side income.

So what’s the secret to Sacca’s side podcasting success?

It all comes down to acquiring and building relationships with lifelong listeners that work to help grow your audience on your behalf—and in the process open up new sponsorship opportunities for you. Here’s a closer look at how you can successfully acquire new listeners and begin monetizing your own show.

1. Find Your Niche

At the end of the day, podcasting is just like any other side hustle or full-time business. To find your audience, you need to define your niche. “Find a reason why people want to listen that’s not currently out there,” Sacca advises. “If you're really good at something… tell your story and get out there.”

You can’t be all things to all people. Nor should you try to chase a niche you don’t know much about, simply because you think it’ll help generate a quick profit. While you should certainly research your potential competitors and audience demographics before selecting your topic, your own passion and personal knowledge is what will allow you to create quality content.

Plus, when you choose to focus your podcast (or any business offering for that matter) around a specific niche, you're going to maximize your opportunity at truly standing out to the audience of listeners you're wanting to reach. They'll read the title and description of your show, then make the instant connection that this is probably right up their alley.

2. The Power of the Interview

For Sacca, interviews proved to make a huge difference in building Rocketship’s audience. “With interviews, we didn’t have to be the expert in the topics we chose to cover, but we were still able to deliver a lot of value to anyone who was listening.”

However, interviews did much more than ensure the Rocketship team could produce quality content. For their first show, they were able to book Ryan Hoover of ProductHunt. As Hoover’s company and influence grew, Rocketship was able to leverage his interview into bigger interviews.

Each person you interview will bring their own audience to your podcast, often sharing the episode through their own social media channels. Many of their fans who discover your podcast this way will likely become loyal listeners themselves—a strategy I've used to grow the listenership for my own podcast over the past year.

3. Don’t Worry About Monetization (Yet)

One of the best things about a side hustle is that you've still got your day job to cover the bills. This means you don’t have to worry about making ends meet while you’re initially growing your podcast. Nor should you. Focus on producing high-quality, engaging content first.

“I would start your podcast for free and not worry about how you’re going to monetize it until you figure out how you’re going to get it to grow,” Sacca says. “Then you figure out how you’re going to put some revenue dollars behind it.”

While you don’t have to worry about monetization when first starting your podcast, you’ll likely have to invest in a bit of marketing if you want to reach your target audience.

Another podcast guest and marketing master, Eyal Reich, cofounder of StoreYa’s Traffic Boosteragrees. He recently shared with me, “Word of mouth alone isn’t going to bring you much traffic to your website. Even if you have a smaller budget, investing in AdWords or social media marketing is essential for growing your audience, especially when you’re still trying to get your name out there.”

The larger you grow your own audience, the more money potential sponsors will be willing to spend for placements on your show. Your initial marketing efforts will also contribute to organic growth as more people discover your podcast and share it with their friends.

5. Don’t Stress Perfection

Producing quality content is important, but as Sacca noted in our interview, podcasts are “a lot less permanent” than the written word. You don’t have to be 100 percent perfect with every episode. “I can put something out there and I can have a couple mistakes in it; people will keep listening and kind of forget about it,” Sacca says.

As a writer myself, I completely agree with this advice. Perfectionism can actually hinder you from ever launching in the first place, and it's important to remember that nobody's expecting perfection from you.

You have a lot more room for error as a podcaster. Use this to your advantage. Don’t worry about cutting out every single “um” or “uh” when editing your audio. By not obsessing over such tiny details, you’ll be able to publish episodes more frequently, which in turn will allow you to reach more listeners.

Growing Your Audience

Building a large audience of loyal listeners doesn't happen overnight.

It will take time, and a decent amount of trial and error as you grow into your podcasting voice, become more comfortable with the process of putting together a show, and start to learn which growth channels are working best to acquire new listeners.

But as you use these principles to streamline your efforts, you’ll be better equipped to create quality content that keeps listeners—and sponsors—coming back for more.

I'm an entrepreneur and writer that grew my last side business to over six-figures in less than one year. Now, I teach over 200,000 monthly readers how to start a profitable blog through podcasts, guides and courses on my blog, ryrob.com.